Work in progress

WHO says it’s not about the money? A re­cent sur­vey by ad­min staff re­cruit­ment com­pany Of­ficeTeam was look­ing for sug­ges­tions on what could boost morale among col­leagues in a work­place.

A mere 36 per cent said em­ploy­ing enough staff to main­tain pro­duc­tiv­ity would help.

About half – 49 per cent – said pub­lic recog­ni­tion of achieve­ments was the thing, while 53 per cent wanted more train­ing to up­grade skills.

But the most pop­u­lar thing for boost­ing morale – sug­gested by 59 per cent of those asked – was to in­crease pay and any ben­e­fits pack­age.

There you have it, em­ploy­ers, get your cheque­book out.

Driven by night­mares

RE­SEARCH has found that some of our ca­reer dreams are ac­tu­ally driven by our night­mares.

The re­search look­ing at the dreams and as­pi­ra­tions of peo­ple was car­ried out by su­per­an­nu­a­tion com­pany Sunsu­per and mar­ket­ing com­pany Ip­sos.

‘‘Ca­reers are a ma­jor driver of dreams for those in their 20s and 30s but they are be­ing driven by the night­mare of what could hap­pen if those dreams aren’t re­alised,’’ Sunsu­per gen­eral man­ager of cus­tomer en­gage­ment Teifi What­ley says.

‘‘The ca­reer night­mares for this age group in­clude be­ing left be­hind, not hav­ing the fi­nances to en­joy life, end­ing up dis­sat­is­fied with work and be­ing stuck in a ca­reer rut.’’

On the pos­i­tive side, in pur­su­ing their dreams work­ers are keen to be recog­nised for their achieve­ments and to show their value to the world.